


Lovestruck Romeo

by old_chatterhand



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: 5+1 Times, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Songfic, musician!AU, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-09
Updated: 2013-03-09
Packaged: 2017-12-04 19:23:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/714155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/old_chatterhand/pseuds/old_chatterhand
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times a meeting with Coulson marked a turn in Clint's life and the one time they turned towards each other.</p>
<p>An AU where Clint is a street musician at first and famous later. (Coulson is ...around)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lovestruck Romeo

**Author's Note:**

> The whole fic is sort of constructed around the song "Romeo and Juliet" as sung by the Indigo Girls, but it's not a songfic in the usual sense. I wrote it one evening in a somewhat strange mood and while half-asleep, and then it sat on my desktop for a week. It won't get better there and I like it too much to hide it, so there we are.
> 
> This is entirely unbeta-ed and sees the light of day here for the first time, so yeah. I'll go back to bed now.
> 
> Link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU7E7ahc92I

(1) The first time they meet, it's a Friday evening and Clint is trying to earn some money on the side. So he sidles up to the guy at the bar and says in his most seducing, husky voice "You and me, baby, how about it?"

The guy in his probably expensive suit (Clint has no knowledge of these things, he's a jeans and t-shirt man) gives him a nearly pitying look and goes back to his beer. So, that's a no, probably.

 

(2) Clint changes careers pretty quickly after that. He actually earns enough to get by as a street musician. Set up with his acoustic guitar in subway stations or in front of shopping malls, he serenades strangers until his voice gives out.

He tries out a different venue once and settles in on a street corner in the business district in the early morning. Rush hour starts pretty soon after, but busy business people have no time for music. He never wants to be like that, Clint thinks during what he decides will be his last song here before he changes location. They may have money and careers and fancy clothes and a house somewhere with a white picket fence and 2.5 children, but this is not a life for him. He thinks them bound by chains, even if those are made of silver and gold. What Clint always wanted is to be like a wild bird, to go wherever he wants and be above all this. 

He's in the last verse of "American Pie" when one of the suits actually slows down to listen to him.

He looks sort of familiar, but then again, all these suits could just be copy-pasted behind some street corner and send past him to be deleted around the next and Clint would never guess.

This suit though waits until the end of the song to drop some bills into Clint's guitar case and asks for an encore.

"Yeah? What do you wanna hear?" Clint asks and the guy just shrugs. Clint's mum used to call him Hawkeye, because he would always spot things lost or misplaced as a kid. His eyes are still sharp and while he casts about for an inspiration, he notes the name-tag half hidden by the guy's lapel.

"Middle name starts with a J, yeah? Mind if I call you Juliet?" 

Clint has learned in the past that being cocky can get him in trouble, but this guy honestly seems unassuming enough. He seems to have a sense of humour too, because he shrugs again and sort of half-smiles.

"Go for it."

So Clint sings the Indigo Girls' "Romeo and Juliet", which is always a guaranteed hit with the ladies at least. What does he care what this guy thinks about him. Somewhat surprisingly, it earns him a couple more bills and a card with a phone number.

"Call Tony, I'll tell him beforehand. I think he might like your sound." Clint raises one eyebrow. Street musician discovered by talent scout. Yeah, right.

 

(3) He calls Tony. Tony Stark, actually, it turns out, who is about the biggest player in current music business. Fucking hell. And Clint has his private cell number on a discreet little white card. 

Tony makes him play in his office, but immediately interrupts Clint halfway through his first rendition of "New York State of Mind".

"Okay, okay, sold. You're in. Pepper," Stark presses a button on his intercom, "Pepper, light of my life, tell Coulson to get his ass over here and bring me a bass guitar to this lead guitar of his. Chop, chop."

Coulson turns out to be 'Juliet' from the other day and Clint is at least a little bit embarrassed. He also has remembered by now why the guy seemed familiar. Apparently, his vicinity causes Clint to put his foot in his mouth. Things have nevertheless turned out well for him, though, so what the hell, who cares.

'Juliet' also brings along a gorgeous woman with bright red hair and dressed all in skin-tight black leather. Clint feels seriously under-dressed by now. The lady is introduced to him as Natasha and they tentatively agree to give it a go as a duo.  
Amidst all the following haggling with Stark and bickering with Natasha (they are instantly best friends), Clint catches a glimpse at Coulson, who's smiling a tiny private smile. When he notices Clint watching, he fucking winks. Clint looks away again. 

He does not yet realize how the world has shifted around him.

 

(4) Clint Barton and Natasha Romanov become the new big stars of the music scene. There is no show to their concerts, just the two of them and their instruments and their voices.

People love it. People love them. Or pretend to - it pretty quickly becomes hard to tell. 

Natasha goes through a series of affairs until she sticks with some science nerd, whom she met in true Notting Hill fashion in a book shop. Bruce needed a bus with an advertisement for their new album stopping behind her to realize that his 'Nat' was famous. After a little (read: gigantic) freak-out, he came to terms with it and now they are pretty steady.

Clint is lonely. He's friends with Thor and this Warriors Three, a metal/rock band Stark has under contract, too. Same with Steve from the Howling Commandos. Coulson is their manager and Clint meets him occasionally through Steve, but they barely talk. Clint and Natasha are handled by Nick Fury, who is an independent contractor to Stark (he never fails to mention that) and scary as fuck. 

He leaves them mostly alone, which works pretty well until it doesn't.

Clint goes to too many parties and has too many drinks and doesn't pay enough attention to what people put into them. Clint knows his creativity is slipping and music is a lot less fun than before. There's pills for that. And powders. And people.

He hits rock bottom on the day he hears a music critic (Selvig, the fucking asshole) on the radio talk about him "He's a stick in the mud, he's got no soul."

Thor's (adoptive) brother Loki is far too happy to comfort him in his misery. He drags Clint along to a party in some out-of-the-way and sort of not particularly trustworthy club called "The Carrier". 

This stands out as the last in a series of Very Bad Ideas on Clint's side. 

It ends with him drugged half out of his mind and all the way shitfaced in the guest room of someone's mansion. He apparently has fulfilled his purpose as Loki's entertainment for the evening and is left to his own devices, drooling into the sheets, wrecked and broken.

Somehow, Coulson finds him there.

Clint doesn't remember a lot of what came after. There were kind words and gentle hands, comfort and safety. It felt as if, after a long dark night, he could see the stars again for the first time. As if he wasn't lost any more.

Clint doesn't drink and doesn't do drugs any more after that. He locks himself in in his apartment for a month and when he emerges, he has enough songs ready for a new album. 

"The Dice Were Loaded From The Start" is a barely moderate success. 

Stark doesn't mind and supports them anyway. Secretly, Clint suspects, Tony prefers this over the gigantic hype they had going on beforehand, this blue-collar workmanship instead of glitter, glamour, glory. 

 

(5) He doesn't see Coulson for quite a long time. Steve tells him one day that the man apparently had a nasty car accident and is on medical leave for the time being, but doesn't know any more details. Maria Hill takes over Coulson's management duties. She's less calm but equally competent.

Natasha and Clint have a long, winding talk one evening. He tells her that he's gay and she tells him that she is terrified that she might end up hurting Bruce. He's the first good guy in a long row of disasters, she says, and she doesn't want to lose him. They both are more comfortable with the lesser degree of fame and success they've got going on now. Clint is still lonely, but not as lost as before.

They play a small gig in a bar a while after that. It's comfortable and intimate and their way of practising. They have just re-entered the stage after the half-way break, when Clint spots Coulson in the back of the crowd. The man looks a bit thinner and a bit older than before. Clint feels like his heart stutters to a stop in his chest only to start beating again in a completely new and unfamiliar rhythm.

They play the rest of the set. Clint shoots Natasha a look after their last song and she seems to understand, because she quietly exits the stage, leaving him behind alone in the spotlight. He squints a bit to find Coulson and finally spots him leaning at the bar, beer in hand.

"Okay," Clint clears his throat, "This last song is from me only to a... friend. Got me through some tough shit and brought me back on course and gave me a chance when nobody else did – you guys know the drill, romantic crap, yadayada. Anyway, Juliet, this is for you. I-- I think I might be in love with you."

 

(+1) Clint is packing away his gear in the appropriate boxes (stalling, really), when he hears a quiet knock on wood behind him. He turns around and there's Coulson at the edge of the stage. He's not in a suit today, just a dark shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the collar unbuttoned.

Clint hesitates for a moment, heart suddenly high in his throat. Then he gives himself a mental shove and walks over. He drops down on the edge, legs dangling, knee nudging against Coulson's shoulder. Coulson smiles at him, a little crooked, a little shy, head tilted to the side.

"You and me, Romeo, how about it?"


End file.
